Babruisk police raid apartment of civil society activist

The apartment of Valiantsina Kavalenka, an activist of a civil Initiative against lawlessness in the courts and the prosecutor's offices, was searched by Babruisk police. As the woman told human rights defenders, the police searched her home for drugs.

“The police behaved politely, drew up a report with witnesses. Allegedly, in a case of 2011 a detainee said that I had sold him drugs. The case is in the archive, and they came only today, though it's been two years now. Is not that suspicious? I believe that the search was conducted with the purpose of intimidating me and my family,” says Mrs. Kavalenka.

The police did not find anything in the apartment. The activist says the harassment is due to the fact that she and her husband have been seeking review of criminal proceedings against their, writing complaints and letters to various authorities.

“My husband tried to protect our son and was convicted, too. He served more than three years, and only then he was rehabilitated. As for our son’s case, even the Prosecutor General’s Office protested against the court verdict, but the Supreme Court rejected it. We were under pressure from all sides, but we will never surrender, we will fight for our son, and nothing will stop us,” says the woman.

Valiantsina Kavalenka says that in the fall of last year she received a warning from deputy chief of the city police department.

“He said that I did not have the right to appeal to the Administration of the President, he read out the warning to me, but did not let me keep it. For almost a year I have been trying to obtain the paper, so that I could appeal it to the court, but to no avail. My son is also feeling the pressure. In just a year, he has been three times transferred from one colony to another; I believe that it is not normal and difficult for him,” says Valiantsina Kavalenka.